Chapter 8. How Christ Fulfilled the Promise God Made to Abraham
Chapter 8
1. Foolish, too, are both Marcion and his disciples for excluding Abraham from the inheritance, to whom the Spirit by many prophets and now also by Paul gave testimony that he believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. The Lord in turn bore witness to him; first by raising up children from the stones, and then by making his posterity as the stars of heaven. He said, And men will come from east and west, from north and south to sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Again, he said to the Jews, When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. So it is evident that those who deny salvation to Abraham, and fashion another god besides the one who made the promise to him, are outside God’s kingdom and are disinherited from imperishability, because they set God as naught and blaspheme him who through Christ Jesus brought into the kingdom of heaven Abraham and his posterity, which is the Church, to which, through Christ Jesus, are given both the adoption and the inheritance promised to Abraham.
2. As a matter of fact, the Lord vindicated Abraham’s posterity and loosed it from bondage and called it to salvation. By way of example, he made clear in the case of the woman whom he healed and said to those who do not have a faith like Abraham’s, You hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass, and lead it away to water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? So it is evident that those who believed in him as Abraham did, he loosed and gave life, though he did nothing contrary to the Law by healing on the sabbath.
Really, the Law did not forbid people to be healed on the sabbath. It was even wont to circumcise them on that day, and ordered the priests to perform functions on behalf of the people. Why, it did not forbid even the healing of mute animals. [The pool] Siloam, too, often effected cures on the sabbath days; for that reason many sat around it on the sabbath days. The Law, indeed, commanded them to abstain from servile work, that is, from all avarice, which is aroused by business and by other worldly practices. On the other hand, it exhorted them to engage in deeds of the soul, which are carried out by the mind and by good words for the benefit of neighbors. For this reason, the Lord rebuked those who unjustly reproached him for healing on the sabbath. The fact is, he did not break the Law but fulfilled it by performing the works of the High Priest, namely, by appeasing God on behalf of men, and cleansing lepers, healing the sick, and himself dying that man who had been exiled might leave the condemnation and fearlessly return to his inheritance.
3. Nor did the Law forbid those who were hungry to take food that was on hand on the sabbaths. It did, however, forbid reaping and gathering into the granary. And so the Lord said to those who blamed the disciples when they plucked the ears of grain and ate: Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him? How they entered the house of God, and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him? Thus he excused his disciples by the words of the Law, and pointed out that it was licit for the priests to act freely. Now David was recognized by God as a priest, even though Saul persecuted him. For all the just possess a priestly rank. All the apostles of the Lord are priests who here below do not inherit fields or houses but always serve the altar and God. Of these Moses, too, spoke in Deuteronomy when blessing Levi, Who said of his father and of his mother, “I regard them not”; he disowned his brothers and ignored his children. For he observed thy precepts, and kept thy covenant. But who are they who have left father and mother and have bidden farewell to all neighbors for the sake of the Word of God and his covenant, except the disciples of the Lord? Again, Moses says of them, They shall have no inheritance. For the Lord himself shall be their inheritance. And again, The Levitical priests, that is, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel, the offerings to the Lord are their inheritance, these they shall eat. As so Paul on his part says, Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit. He means, since the Lord’s disciples possessed the Levitical inheritance, it was lawful for them when hungry to take food from the grains; for the laborer deserves his food. Likewise, the priests profaned the sabbath in the temple, and still were not blameworthy. And why were they not blameworthy? Because while they were in the temple they did not perform worldly functions, but those of the Lord. Thus they fulfilled the Law. They did not transgress it; as, for example, the one who of his own accord brought dry wood into the camps of God and was justly stoned. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And, If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.